


Medication

by VeteranKlaus



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Hurt Alec, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 14:54:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20065861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeteranKlaus/pseuds/VeteranKlaus
Summary: In which Alec collapses at Ellie’s when he’s invited for dinner, rather than in his hotel afterwards.





	Medication

Admittedly, it’s been a good night. Ellie and Joe made an amazing meal and, after indulging in an amount of wine that he really shouldn’t have due to medical reasons, he allows himself to relax and have a good time. He and Joe get along, their giggling about Ellie disliking him carrying on throughout the night, much to her endless confusion. 

It looks as if Ellie’s enjoying herself, too. Cheeks slightly rosy from wine, they’ve left work aside for the night, and she’s pleased to see he isn’t being such a wound up arse tonight, even if they awkwardly glossed over the topic of his divorce and his daughter. It seems she’s happy, almost a little shocked, to see Alec as he is now. Makes her realise he is human after all. He has a life outside of work, emotions, likes and dislikes and a past. Alec just hopes this works to bring them a little closer. It would be nice to feel as if she didn’t completely despise him at work.

They’re clearing the table and Alec stands up to help. First, he sways, having to step aside before he tips to the floor. He blames it on the alcohol first - he’s not drank for months, and with his poor health and diet, he wouldn’t be surprised if he was enough of a light weight to be properly drunk. But then comes the pain. The ringing in his ears. His hands scramble to grasp the table as his breath catches in his throat, and then there’s a hand on his back.

”Woah there, buddy,” says Joe, eyebrows raised and concerned, a small smile on his face. “A little much to drink, huh?” He jokes. Alec swallows, rides this wave of pain out, and nods.

”You - you got a bathroom?” He grunts. His hands shake, and Joe nods, guides him away from the table, and points to the door in sight. He pats Alec on the back and leaves him to go stumble inside, closing the door a bit forcefully. He can hear them talking, hears Ellie say something about a lightweight, and hears them laugh. Alec stumbles into a wall, and shoves his hands into his pockets. 

The front ones are empty save for his phone. The back ones are empty. The packet of pills (unknowingly also empty) must be in his jacket. He looks to the door as the world tilts and his hand grasps at his chest. He won’t make it.

He can’t seem to breathe properly and his knees give out. His head hits something with a resounding _crack_, and everything instantly turns black.

”Drunk?” Ellie repeats, raising an eyebrow at Joe. “Didn’t think he was a lightweight.”

”Didn’t think so either, but he’s all skin and bones,” Joe responds. Ellie snickers, sliding another plate into the dishwasher. Just as she opens her mouth to respond, there’s a loud thud from the bathroom, immediately followed by another one. Her and Joe share an eyebrow-furrowed look before she deserts the dishwasher in favour of the bathroom.

Her knuckles rap against the wooden door. “Si-Alec?” She calls. “Everything alright?”

There’s no answer. She waits a moment, then tries the door. It’s unlocked and she swings it open, stepping in, and almost on top of him. He’s curled on the tiled floor, arms stretched out in front of him, and he’s breathing short, sharp, shallow breaths rapidly. Blood trickles out from beneath his head, a small drop on the corner of the sink.

”Shit,” Ellie mutters, dropping to her knees and shaking him. “Alec? Alec?”

”Oh, shit,” Joe says, hurrying to her side. “I’ll, uh, I’ll phone the ambulance,” he says, running for his phone and punching in the numbers. 

Was it the alcohol? Had he been that drunk and he just tripped over the bathmat? She has no idea, but when she reaches to press her fingers to his neck, her other hand grabbing a towel and pressing it to where his hair is most matted with blood, his pulse races erratically beneath her fingertips.

”The ambulance is coming,” Joe says upon his return. “He alright?”

”I don’t know,” Ellie mutters, and she curses him out mentally because he _better_ be. 

At one point, just as the ambulance drives up, flashing lights painting the place blue, he opens his eyes. His eyelids peel open half way and his dazed eyes don’t focus on her, but still go in her direction. 

“You with me?” Ellie asks. She tries to ignore how wet the towel in her hand is. She taps his cheek with her other hand, and the man mutters something incoherent. A name, maybe. She thinks it sounds like _Tess, please_, but she can The sure. She can’t ask for clarification either, because his eyes close almost immediately and he’s unconscious again.

Joe guides the paramedics to them, and Ellie feels a little sick watching them heave his limp and pale body, shirt stained red, onto a stretcher. One of them asks what happens and Joe hurries Tom back into his bedroom when he pokes his head out in time to see the paramedics wheeling Alec down the hall and outside. 

When the paramedics leave, the ambulance siren still on, tearing off down the road, Ellie can’t sit still. Her leg bounces and she stares at Alec’s cost hung up in her corridor. 

“Get a taxi,” Joe tells her, returning from Tom’s bedside. Ellie startles.

”Why?”

Joe gives her a look. “You’re worried,” he states, “get a taxi and see what the say.”

”I just don’t think it was the alcohol,” she mutters. 

“How come?” Joe asks.

Ellie shakes her head. “His heart race,” she says. “It was erratic. Wrong.” She shrugs and drags her hands down her face. Fuck him for opening up and then going and doing this. For not leaving earlier and not making her do this, or for not drinking as much as he did, or not saying he had a problem. Fuck him for making her care, but she’s always been a caring person, even if she doesn’t want to be.

With a sigh, Ellie grabs his jacket and calls a taxi.


End file.
